He's burly, balding and has man-boobs. But a photographer's quirky pictures are raising funds for breast cancer patients.

Photographer Bob Carey says his photos of himself in a pink tutu in different enviroments are introspective. They're about colour, environment, landscape, and are somewhat melancholy. "It’s really kind of cool because it makes people think. It’s also very uplifting," he says.

But what the 51 year old New York-based photographer does have is spirit, tremendous love for his wife Linda . . . and a pink tutu.

He’s combined all this — plus his talent for taking quirky self-portraits – and taken it on the road, posing in nothing but his tutu all over the US and even outside of it.

The result is a collection of arresting, sometimes amusing, sometimes melancholy but surreally beautiful landscapes, featuring his almost-naked self in pink tulle. In one photo he performs a joyful grand jete in a graveyard. In another he lies flat on his back in Times Square. Here he is communing with cows in a field. There he delicately points his naked toe in a snowy Brooklyn street.

The collection began as an escape but turned into a mission after Linda was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer in 2003. As she was receiving chemotherapy, she would share her husband’s images with sister patients. They laughed.

That’s when Bob got the idea of growing the collection, selling the prints and publishing them as a book to raise money for those breast cancer patients who did not have the financial resources Linda did.

Sadly, in 2006, after 18 month remission, Linda’s cancer came back, in her liver. She is back in treatment.

The Star reached Bob Carey in Arizona, where he is preparing for a show in September. This is an edited version of that conversation.

Q: So how is Linda doing?

A: She’s doing great. She’s been on oral chemotherapy and another drug called Herceptin, an IV drug, for five and a half years now. She’s what they call treatable but not curable. She’ll always be on chemo and she’ll always be on Herceptin.

But she works although she gets tired. We work together, and we work out of her house. So if she needs to go take a nap she can. She’s doing fine but sometimes it’s hard.

The reason I pursued putting this body of work out into the world was the amount of feedback that we were getting from Linda’s friends at the cancer centre. Like when they were having their chemotherapy IVs, they would look at the imagery on laptop or iPad and it would make them happy.

So I thought, wow, if I had this body of work that I could show and have for every cancer centre in the country. That would be awesome.

Q: The photos are taken all over. Do you travel especially for them?

A: Sometimes. For example in 2008, my father passed away and right after that, we packed up the dog and went off for 10 days on a road. Some of the most powerful images came from that trip. It was magic.

But, if I’m on the road, I always take the tutu with me and, if I see a great landscape or something, I will photograph it. So it’s both.

Q: Describe your images.

A: They’re introspective. About colour, environment, landscape. Somewhat melancholy. An investigation of myself and transformation of myself. What one piece of material can do to change the whole context of an image, or the environment. Oh wait he’s wearing a piece of pink material and he looks like he’s a ballerina. It’s really kind of cool because it makes people think. It’s also very uplifting.

Q: You come across as very athletic, leaping way up above the ground.

A: There’s one I am hanging from a rock wall. It’s like an irrigation ditch. I am actually hanging at a 45 degree angle. But it looks like I am hanging straight. I like to create an illusion.

You’ll be surprised how high it looks like you can jump in a photograph. Try it. But it’s an illusion.

I never ever drop myself into an image. I will move things around. I will take things out if I need to. Clean them up. I’ll straighten the lines. But I never put myself in a picture or make it seem like I am jumping higher.

Q: How do you get away with prancing around in public like that?

A: I have pink shorts on. Then I put my regular shorts on over that. Flipflops. Depends whether it’s winter or not but I will always have my pink shorts on over my underwear so it’s like legal. So what I do is, the tutu just clips on, and then I drop my shorts, take my shirt off, my flipflops, and then I am there. The police have nothing really nothing on me unless I am trespassing or something.

I have a tripod and a wireless remote control. A lot of the times I’ll have somebody with me to guard the camera if I’m in public because I will be away from the camera and my stuff. Usually I have an assistant or a friend or whoever is available.

Q: Were you surprised by the way your images have been received?

A: This has been an amazing gift. I have sold a lot of prints before in my career but this thing has exploded beyond all our expectations. It’s been amazing. I have sold out 8 or 9 different images and we have this special edition book that we have been selling that comes with an original print – and that’s 500 books that are almost sold out. We’re printing 5000 books and they will all be available on the tutu project website.

Q: But you are self publishing?

I couldn’t get a publisher at the time I started. I had a lot of interest but it’s an expensive book. People are . . . you know . . . the economy. But I really wanted to get it out there so I decided to do it on my own. It worked. It’s a miracle.

I guess because there are so many people in the world that have been touched by cancer. I have lost three people in two years, my dad and two brothers-in-law. Two different sisters lost their husbands. All this in a two year period. My Mom died 22 years ago. My sister was diagnosed 2 weeks from when Linda was. It’s insane. People are really aware of cancer and most people have been touched by it.

Q: Do you take the tutu everywhere?

A: Yeah, pretty much. It’s always stuffed in my backpack. The first one my stepmother made and I lost it somewhere on the road. And then my sister made another one and I have had it for six years. It’s really gnarly now. It’s quite bad. So we’re going to make another one. But this is my favourite. I have a show coming up in Arizona at a museum in September. I might put it on a podium and put a glass box over it.

Find out more about The Tutu Project on Facebook or at TheTutuProject.com

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